Social networking site LinkedIn is the latest online service to take a more mobile-friendly stance, as wireless devices continue to become more Web-enabled and attract applications typically used by desktop and notebook computer users.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company today announced m.linkedin.com, a special Web site where mobile device users can access their LinkedIn accounts.

[cob:Related_Articles]Currently in beta, m.linkedin.com is available to users of Apple's iPhone, as well as the RIM BlackBerry and other popular smartphones. The company plans to release a final version in spring.

"Anyone with a LinkedIn account can use it," Brandon Duncan, director of engineering at LinkedIn, told InternetNews.com. "The main reason this is launching as a beta is that we've provided a minimal feature set for mobile devices. There are a lot of additional features we want to add, but first we want to get feedback from mobile users of what they like and what they want."

The mobile site provides the usual features available to PC-based users: connecting to contacts; searching profiles, photos and biographical information; inviting others to join; and receiving notice about contacts' updated information.

LinkedIn said its mobile push came about as a response to the thousands of iPhone users who it said are already using the service -- even though the site isn't optimized for mobile devices, making it slower for them to access.

To better support those users, LinkedIn designed its new mobile site with a look and feel reminiscent of a standard iPhone application.

The new mobile beta site also will be available in multiple languages, including French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. That move acknowledges the site's heavy focus on growing an international user base: Of LinkedIn's reported 19 million members, slightly more than half of them are based outside the U.S.

Duncan said he thinks services like a mobile version of LinkedIn could help promote wireless applications to U.S. users, who typically prefer PC-based services.

European and Asian users, on the other hand, are far more willing to rely on their mobile devices for banking and transactional applications, he said.

LinkedIn's move follows that of other social networking players, who have long placed a priority on attracting mobile users. MySpace and Facebook, for instance, offer special features or editions of their sites in partnership with wireless carriers.